FACES IN THE CROWD

Patti Hogan of La Jolla, Calif. began playing tennis at age 8 and now, eight years later, is ranked No. 2 of girls 16-and-under. Patti failed to win the U.S. hardcourt title, but she did upset veterans Nancy Richey and Rosemary Casals before losing in the finals.

Greg Spahn, cleanup batter at Hartshorne (Okla.) High, struck out only four times to rack up a .490 batting average that included a number of doubles, triples, and two home runs. Greg learned to hit in practice sessions with his father Warren, a fair country pitcher.

Dana DeBlois, 31, has been fishing near his Sterling, Mass. home all his life. Casting with a goldfish lure painted fluorescent orange in Wachusett Reservoir, he reeled in a 19-pound 10-ounce brown trout that proved to be the largest ever caught in his state.

John Oxley, a 52-year-old rancher from Osage County, Okla., has been playing polo for 10 years. He scored nine goals in three games (including four in the final) to lead his Tulsa team to the U.S. National Open Championship in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Peg Greenberg, a Pomona, Calif. housewife, took up golfing 14 years ago and played "every day for the first five years." She just won her 14th championship by beating Audrey Cottle of Costa Mesa, Calif. by three strokes on the Western Hills course in Chino, Calif.

Richard Gilbert, a senior at Choate School in Wallingford, Conn., took a first and a second in shotput and discus at a meet with Cheshire Academy. Then, with only two days' practice in high jumping, he leaped 6 feet ¾ inches to break a school record set in 1933.

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